


Back In My Body

by mchaha



Category: Amar a Muerte (TV)
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Injury Recovery, Physical Therapy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-07 05:39:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18404216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mchaha/pseuds/mchaha
Summary: She doesn’t remember much after that at all, once the paramedics arrived and shot something in her arm to help her cope with the pain the afternoon turned to a hazy daydream that she could have mistaken as a nightmare.Which brings her to this. Laying in a hospital bed, high on pain killers, and the bottom half of her left leg in some kind of faux plaster cast. She didn’t think the end of her world would be so sterile.or, the physical therapy au





	1. Chapter 1

She heard the pop before she felt it. She’ll swear that anyways. The details of the day are foggy now, though it’s only been 4 weeks, but that’s probably because of the drugs they gave her in the ambulance. And at the hospital. And then the painkillers she was on in the days following her surgery. 

She had been playing tennis with her brother when it happened. The competitive nature and the siblings intense desire to one-up each other had them returning serves to the far corners of the court, trying to fake each other out and make it impossible to get a hit in. They’d been playing the game for years, so when Guille had lobbed a ball into the deep left corner, Valentina had no problem shuffling to the side so that her long arms could try and get the racket to make contact with the yellow ball. She was wearing her old tennis shoes (her father blames her for not using newer ones that hadn’t been worn down) and when the sole caught itself on the hardtop, causing the her knee to keep going while her foot was stuck planted, the tendons in her leg couldn’t take the force. 

She heard the pop before she felt it. 

/

Two hours later she had been laying in bed at the nearest emergency room to her house. Guille, not wanting to make things worse or lift her in a way that would cause more pain, had called an ambulance immediately after rushing to his sister’s side. 

The last two hours were foggy in Valentina’s mind. She remembers hearing and feeling the pop in her calf, followed by a strange warmth spreading through her leg and an immediate sharp pain unlike anything she had ever felt before. 

Growing up, she’d played all of the typical sports, basketball, soccer, volleyball, before falling into a tennis camp one summer when her family was living in Vancouver. That’s to say, she knew what it felt like to sprain an ankle or pull a muscle in her leg. She’d always been a competitive player, and so it was a rare occurrence for Valentina Carvajal to finish out a game without blood dripping from some orifice or the beginnings of at least two bruises blossoming on her skin somewhere.

The feeling she’d experienced on the tennis court earlier that morning was nowhere near anything she’d ever felt before. When her brother rushed over to make sure that she was okay, her jaw was already clenched tight, trying to hold back a scream and a list of all of the expletives she knew from tumbling out of her mouth. 

She already knew that she wasn’t going to be able to stand up, and there was no way in hell that she’d be able to hop her way over to one of the cars in the driveway on the other side of the property so that Guille would be able to drive her over to the doctor. 

She remembers him crouching down and talking to her asking if she could move, which obviously she could not. Her mind was so focused on keeping her teeth clenched together tightly, so that she wouldn’t start cursing like a sailor in front of her older brother. She remembers him calling somebody on the phone, then pressing it into her hand, and her father’s voice filtering through the speaker asking her if she was okay, which again - obviously not. 

He was using his soothing voice, trying to placate her fear at the situation, but she was focused more on trying not to pass out from the sheer pain spreading throughout her left leg to understand anything that he was saying. At some point, Guille must have grabbed her own phone from her bag on the sidelines and was on the phone with what she later realized was emergency services. How fucking dramatic.

All she’d been trying to do was spend some quality time with her brother while she was home for spring break from university, and of course she had to go and ruin her own damn life with an excessive injury.

She doesn’t remember much after that at all, once the paramedics arrived and shot something in her arm to help her cope with the pain the afternoon turned to a hazy daydream that she could have mistaken as a nightmare.

Which brings her to this. Laying in a hospital bed, high on pain killers, and the bottom half of her left leg in some kind of faux plaster cast. She didn’t think the end of her world would be so sterile.

/

“Don’t be so dramatic mija, this isn’t the end of the world” Her father was trying to make her feel better but the diagnosis was pretty jarring for the young Carvajal. She’d broken both the tibia and the fibula in her left leg, and had suffered a dislocated ankle, though they’d reset that sometime between painkiller one and two while she’d been laying in the hospital bed earlier that afternoon. 

Surgery would be required, and she’d have to live with metal screws and plates in her leg for quite possibly the rest of her life. She’d be non-weight-bearing for at least two months while her leg healed.

None of that was the problem. The real problem with the situation is that her stupid leg was completely fucking up her summer plans. There were five weeks left in her semester and she’d already made plans with her friends, including her on-again/off-again boyfriend Lucho, to take a 3 week vacation to Europe as soon as finals were over. 

They’d already planned to go on a pasta binge in Rome, to go hang-gliding in Switzerland, and to visit Versailles as soon as they were in France. Now, none of that would be possible, because Valentina still wouldn’t be able to properly walk until they had planned to return back to Mexico. To top it all off, she’d been invited to attend a study abroad semester for that upcoming fall in the States at UCLA in California.

“I’m not being dramatic! You don’t understand papi, this stupid accident has completely ruined my Summer already. We all already had planned out our trip and I already had my tickets lined up. Not to mention, I don’t even know if I can go to Los Angeles in the fall now that I’ll have to live like this.” 

She squeezed her eyes shut, turning away from her father so he couldn’t see the emotion on her face. She’d never been good at hiding her feelings from her father, especially since her mother had passed away when she was a little kid.

Leon Carvajal wasn’t worried about the ticket fees, and he knew his daughter wasn’t that worried about it either. She was feeling quite gloom and doom at the moment, but he knew it was fair of her to feel that way. He’d never been injured in such a dramatic and traumatic fashion, and he couldn’t imagine the pain and discomfort her body was in. On top of that, her flair for drama and the priorities of her 21-year-old life were going to be severely disrupted for the foreseeable future.

“We don’t need to worry about that right now, sweetie. I need to call your sister and let her know what happened and that she needs to clear her schedule for this weekend so that she can come see you, and then I’m going to call my Orthopedic doctor friend so that he can make sure to clear his schedule and get you in first thing in the morning so that we can get this scheduled right away. The faster we can get this surgery done, the faster you’ll heal and we can get you in physical therapy and back to normal.”

/

The next few days were full of doctors appointments and wallowing in self-pity, mixed in with long bouts of Netflix binging and fielding phone calls from extended family and her friends who had heard what happened. She’d been keeping her friends updated on her life through Instagram Stories, and was honestly shocked at how many people had reached out to see if she was okay after posting a pic from the hospital.

Lucho had stopped by on his way back to university to check on her and to let her know not to worry about the Europe trip. He of course, didn’t say they would cancel the trip, but she didn’t really expect him to anyway. He, Sergio, and Nayeli would undoubtedly still take off after the school year was over, while she would be stuck at home, probably still going to Physical Therapy to learn to walk again.

Her father had called the university to make them aware of her situation, and had filled out all of the paperwork necessary with the Student Services Office so that she wouldn’t be academically punished for having to miss so much class.

She’d emailed all of her professors explaining her situation, and was fortunate enough that her major was more focused on articles and essays rather than tests and material that she’d actually have to sit in class for. She’d worked out a system with her professors that allowed her to go into class once a week, starting the week after her surgery.

Essentially, she’d have an extra week of “break,” before she’d have to figure out how to manage a full course load on crutches. Fortunately she’d chosen a university that was only an hour away from her childhood home, and so she’d spend the rest of the semester commuting back-and-forth that one day a week, under the supervision of Jacobo, her personal driver. 

The situation wasn’t ideal, but at least she wouldn’t have to withdraw from classes and lose a semester just because of an accident. She was honestly thankful that her professors were willing to work with her on this - she’d heard horror stories of university students who’d had to deal with family deaths during the school year, only to find out their professor had flunked them because they had no heart. 

Still, the situation sucked. 

“Stop being so dramatic Vale!”

Eva had been in town since the day before, and would go with her to the hospital in the morning for her surgery. They were close, but had their moments like any siblings did. She was also pretty sure that the eldest’s sole mission in life was to aggregate her younger sister, though Eva would argue that the opposite was true. 

“I’m not being dramatic, Eva! This is literally the worst thing that has ever happened to me - and don’t say you feel my pain, because nobody in this family has ever suffered such a traumatic injury like this and nobody has to live with metal in their body for the rest of their life.” She may have been hopped up on pain killers, but she’d be damned if her sister didn’t understand how upset this whole situation was making her. 

“Ay, tranquila Vale. I’m not saying what happened to you wasn’t rough! I’m just saying that it is what it is, and this is the reality of your life now. And as soon as you’re body is ready, you’ll start physical therapy with Mateo and you’ll be back to normal in no time.” Eva knew that her sister was frustrated with her situation but she also knew Valentina well enough to know that she was using anger as a metaphorical crutch to mask the anxiety she was feeling towards having to go under for surgery the next morning. None of the Carvajal children felt comfortable in hospitals, not since their mother had passed away after being bed ridden for weeks. 

“You remember when I was 10 and I had to have my appendix removed?” Eva moved to sit next to her sister on the couch, tucking her legs underneath her to sit so that she wouldn’t knock the bulky cast that was propped up on the ottoman. “I was nervous to have surgery, but you promised you’d draw me a picture while I was in the operating room so I could hang it next to my bed once I got out.” 

Valentina fought back an eye roll, knowing that her sister was trying to calm her nerves, but still stubborn enough not to admit she was anxious. 

Eva continued, “I remember going back to the operating room with the doctors, and a really handsome nurse asking me what my favorite song right now was, and then asking me to count to the highest number I could reach.” She put her hand on her sister’s arm and squeezed it gently. “Next thing I knew - I was waking up in recovery in a completely different room! And I was high enough on pain meds at the time that I remember thinking I had invented teleportation.”

Valentina chuckled, remembering her sisters incoherent ramblings when they’d brought her back into her hospital room after that surgery. She’d only been 4 at the time, but she remembers the day like a still frame in her mind. 

Eva smiled, noticing her sister’s change of demeanor. “Hey, maybe since you’re old enough to have semi-intelligent though processes, Guillermo and I can record your reaction the anesthesia and we can make you YouTube famous!”

“You know dad would kill you if you ever made video like that public.” Valentina tilted her head back and rolled it to the side against the back of the couch. “You’ll be there the whole time, right?”

It was times like this when Eva was reminded of how young her sister was. She’d grown up a lot when their mother passed away, having to take care of their father when Eva had returned to university and Guille had gone back to boarding school weeks later. She’d been forced to. But she was still the baby of the family, 5 years her junior and 3 years younger than their brother. 

Eva scooted closer, mindful of the injured leg in between them, and put her arm around the girl’s shoulders, placing a kiss to her temple when Valentina nestled her head into her neck. 

“You know I’m always here for you Vale, even when we’re old and grey and have to wear dentures. Para siempre.”

~~~~~~~~

Juliana Valdes was not what you would call, a morning person. 

She was, however, a people person and a money person, which had led to her a career in physical therapy. She’d fallen into the career by accident really. As a freshman in college, she’d been a design major, hoping to one day have her own fashion line. She’d picked up a side-gig as a model for the students in the upper division classes, helping showcase their designs for their final projects.

While she was a woman of many talents, walking in heels what not one of her strengths, and she had taken a tumble during dress rehearsals. She’d thankfully not broken anything, but had sprained her wrist on the way down. Her misfortune had ended her up in physical therapy for a couple of weeks. She’d become completely enthralled with the process and how passionate the PT team was with helping her recover. Her PT’s name was Beltran, and the man had became as much a mental therapist as a physical one. He’d been an able and willing confidant for Juliana as she was debating whether or not to continue in the fashion world, which she’d been losing passion since she’d decided to make it her career.

She loved creating designs, having a spark of inspiration as banal as a flower on the side of the road turn into the silhouette of a woman’s evening gown. But the pressure of having to spit out design after design on command for school had sucked the life out of her and she no longer woke up in the mornings excited about the art.

That was why, once she’d experienced what Physical therapists did daily (and what their starting salaries were) she was prompted to switch majors and pursue a path that she knew could make a difference with. Beltran had helped her application to transfer, and he’d even recommended her for an internship position at a friend’s practice.

“Juli, you’re going to be late for work”

She groaned at her mother’s voice and rolled over to look at the time on her phone, which she’d tossed haphazardly to the side after shutting off her alarm.

It was 6:45AM and she needed to be at the office in 45 minutes. Thank god she had a set uniform of joggers and a polo shirt and just needed to work her hair into a ponytail and swipe some mascara on before heading out the door. 

“Bye, mami. I’ll stop by the restaurant during my lunch break.”

She was in her last semester of college, and the 21 year old was lucky enough that she only had to take her internship class to graduate. This let her work as many hours as she liked, and better yet, get paid. 

As she stepped into the late March air, the chill sent a shiver through her body. She knew the air would warm by midday, so she didn’t bother going back in the house to grab a jacket, instead grabbing her bike and pushing the gate open in front of her. She’d given up on driving to work months ago, as the traffic in the city had become the bane of her existence. Her office wasn’t far away anyways, and she could make it in a 20 minute bike ride.

When Beltran had told her he could land her an internship for the Groupo Carvajal sports empire, she’d at first been hesitant to take it. She’d never considered working in sports before, especially coming from a fashion background, but she’d found she liked it more than she ever thought she would. Athletes were artists in their own right, and she’d come to love helping athletes of all abilities realize their potential and achieve their dreams.

The human body was an incredible structure, and there was no better example of this than in the form of an athlete. Groupo Carvajal was the owner of one of the top Soccer teams in the country, but the physical therapy division worked with everyone from the professionals to the teenagers at the high school down the road. 

Juliana worked directly under Mateo, the son-in-law to the team’s owner. Mateo was married to Eva Carvajal, one of the most powerful and revered women in the country, and next in line to inherit the family business after Leon decided he’d had enough of the 9-to-5. Mateo was wonderfully sweet, an excellent therapist, and was dedicated to helping all of his patients achieve their goals. After shadowing him for the past three months, she’d learned excellent “bedside manner” and had found an appreciation in the relationship between the patient and the PT. She loved the days when he brought his daughter into the office, and always had a smile on her face when little Isabella came to visit.

The four-year-old had become quite taken with Juliana, and liked to follow the intern around, mimicking her tasks. She’d become Juliana’s little mini-me, and the girl found herself looking forward to the days when Bella was set to visit her papa, even though she’d never considered herself good with kids before.

Today was one of the days that she was expecting to see the toddler running around the PT gym, so she wasn’t surprised when the little one barreled into her legs when she arrived at the office that morning. She was surprised to she the little girl’s mother also standing in the lobby.

She respected the hell out of Eva Carvajal, and she admired her work ethic and the devotion she had to her family at the same time. She’d met the woman before at various team events and on the rare occasion that she stopped by to visit her husband during the work day, but she was intimidated by her presence each time. There was something about the older woman that made her want to both stare at her beauty and cower in fear of her sharp gaze.

“Hola, Ms. Valdes,” the woman spoke, fixing her daughter’s hair as the little one made her way back to her mother’s side. “It’s nice to see you again. Bella always loves to tell me about her days when she comes to visit her dad & her new favorite person.”

Juliana blushed, feeling embarrassed at the unwanted attention from the woman who had the power to fire her at will. “Señora Carvajal. It’s a pleasure as always. Your daughter is a joy to have around - your whole family is, really.”

Eva smirked at the younger woman, moving to gather Isabella’s bag that the girl had thrown on the ground in her excitement. “You say that now Juliana. That’s actually why I’m here this morning. As I’m sure you’ve heard, my younger sister had an accident a few weeks back and she’s finally been given the all clear by her doctor to start PT with Mateo. My father will be bringing her by this afternoon and pick Bella up after Valentina finishes her session.”

Juliana knew of the youngest Carvajal but had yet to meet her. She’d worked with Guillermo before, as he’d been working for GC part-time for a couple of years now as he finished his Master’s degree. Guile worked more on the media side of the company, but he loved his Soccer team and occasionally came and worked out with some of the players in the team gym. She had yet to meet Valentina Carvajal though, but she knew the youngest of the siblings was still a student in University and had not yet ventured into the family business.

“Tia Val is coming here today?” Bella looked up at her mother, after hearing her aunt’s name. “Si, muñequita. You’re going to stay with daddy and help Miss Juliana at work today, and then abuelito is bringing Vale here so she can start walking again. You remember that she has a big ouchie on her leg? Papi is going to help your tia get stronger.”

The tiny girl looked at her mother with wide eyes, excitement at seeing her aunt evident in her the way her cheeks stretched in a smile. Juliana felt odd standing there, watching one of the most powerful women in the world sharing such a tender moment with her daughter.

Eva squatted to her daughter’s height and tilted one cheek forward “Un besito? Mami has to go to work now, but you’ll be good for papi and help him and Juliana when your tia get her, right?”

The four-year-old planted a sloppy kiss on her mom’s cheek, then turned to Juliana, grinning up at the young woman and nodding her head excitedly before skipping out of the waiting area and to the back where her father was prepping for the day ahead.

“My daughter adores you Ms. Valdes, but feel free to tell her to leave you alone if you need to get work done. Mateo says you show great promise and can be a valuable asset to the Group Carvajal team after your internship is over and you graduate from college.”

Eva patted her on shoulder, and moved past her towards the door. “And just a word of caution, Juliana. My sister has been in a bit of a mood since she broke her leg and had her surgery, so don’t take it personally if she starts off a little cold with you today. If anything goes wrong, just leave Bella with her, she loves her niece.”

Juliana watched the woman leave, slipping on an expensive looking pair of sunglasses and answering a business call with the practice ease of someone who was confident in their abilities and intelligence. Juliana let out a breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and set off towards the gym area so she could get settled before Mateo’s first patient came in. It was already turning out to be a weird day and the clock hadn’t even hit 8AM yet.

God she hated mornings.


	2. two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, a huge thank you to everyone who ready this! Your comments are lovely and greatly appreciated!
> 
> Second, some of you guys commented on the enemies to lovers tag I put on here - let me clarify by saying it's not so much enemies to lovers, as Valentina-is-an-icy-bitch-at-first to lovers.

The Valentina Carvajal that appeared later that afternoon was nothing like the poised young heiress that Juliana had seen on many a tv appearance. The young woman that crutched her way back though the therapy gym was wearing a loose pair of black sweatpants paired with a cropped hoodie that looked like it was thrown over a baggy white t-shirt. 

There were pictures of the entire Carvajal family posted around the Group Carvajal team offices, mostly at fancy looking events benefitting the soccer team. She’d even seen other ones, featuring Leon and his children at all stages of life, lining the walls of the corporate office when she had interviewed for this job. Mateo had a framed photo of Bella’s first birthday, featuring a crowd of family members all celebrating his daughter.

So for everything Juliana had expected her to be, Valentina certainly didn’t fit the image she’d created in her mind.

Juliana was sitting at the long desk that she shared with Mateo, filling out paperwork for one of the patients that had just left when the girl hobbled her way through the staff door, followed quickly by her father. The air in the room noticeably changed when the players and staff noticed their big boss had entered the room, though Leon Carvajal looked unassuming in his jeans and polo shirt with a GC logo embroidered over the left breast pocket.

Bella, who had been sitting next to Juliana on the nearest empty exam table, jumped up at the sight of her grandfather and her aunt.

“Abue!!”

Leon Carvajal’s face lit up at the sight of his only grandchild, scooping her into his arms with a joyful laugh.

“How’s my favorite little worker doing, hmm? Have you been having a good day here with your papi?”

The toddler nodded and began rambling on to her grandfather about the grand adventures she’d been having all morning, ranging from her trip to the vending machine with Ms. Juliana, to helping Sergio, the team’s star forward, with his exercises.

Meanwhile, Valentina had made her way slowly to the back corner of the gym, where her brother-in-law was waiting for her at an empty exam bed. Juliana took the time to study the taller girl, noticing the way her lips were set in a scowl and how her jaw clenched every time she took a hop forward. Valentina took a seat on the bed with her back towards Juliana, and she watched as Mateo took care of the typical introductory information, before meeting her eyes over his sister-in-law’s head and gesturing her to come join them.

“Juliana, this is my cuñada Valentina. She’s about 3 weeks post-op. Vale, this is Juliana Valdes. She’ll be helping you out a lot with your strengthening exercises every time you come in here. She also helps me keep Bella entertained when your sister drops her off here.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Miss Carvajal.” Juliana stuck out her hand in greeting. Standing this close to the girl, she was taken aback at how beautiful she was. Where Eva was all sharp features, Valentina was her foil, softer in every way except for the scowl marring her features. Eva had warned her of the mood this morning though, so she didn’t take it personally when the injured woman stiffly shook her hand, hiding a grimace of pain.

“Oh god don’t call me that, Valentina is fine.” Valentina rolls her eyes, clearly annoyed at Juliana’s display of professionalism compared to the lack of professionalism that she maintains with Mateo.

The injured girl shifts her vision back to her brother-in-law, effectively ignoring Juliana’s presence. Juls rolls her eyes internally. She knows she’s not a licensed therapist, physical or mental, but she’s had enough experience working with the team so far to know that a big part of physical therapy is the rapport between the PT and their patient. She likes to think that the conversations she’s had with some of the players during their treatment have helped lift their spirits, which in turn helps them feel more encouraged with the process.

She’s also dealt with enough injured athletes to know that the first step in the process almost always starts out the same way - Anger at the situation they find themselves in. While Valentina Carvajal isn’t a professional athlete, Juliana is sure there are things she’s having to miss out on because of her injury, so she takes the mood as it is, hoping that the taller girl will warm up to her as time passes.

With an injury as aggressive as Valentina’s, the girl is going to have to come in to the gym at least three times a week for the next couple of months, then will transition to less frequent visits until Mateo releases her from her treatment plan. There’s probably some wiggle room in there, due to the fact that she, you know, technically owns the place, but Juliana knows they’re going to be spending many hours together for the near future and would rather start the process with the right foot forward. She hopes it’s a good sign that Valentina can technically only use her right foot right now.

Mateo’s voice snaps her out of her thoughts

“We’re going to start off slow today, Juls. I’m just going to take her range of motion measurements so I can come up with the treatment plan and we’ll be done for the day. You can go ahead and work with Sergio.”

He nodded off to the man that was walking out of the men’s locker room, limping over to the stationary bike across the room. Sergio Guerra was the rookie-star forward of the GC Lions soccer team. He’d been mid-stride, cutting off down the pitch in the middle of one of the season’s early games when his foot planted in the wrong position and he blew out his knee.

That had been weeks ago, and he had been coming to PT with Mateo ever since.

Juliana grabbed his chart off of Mateo’s desk and attached it to the clipboard she always kept near. She’d been working with Sergio long enough that they had a friendly back-and-forth that they’d built up. He’d skipped the anger stage of his injury, and was already at the point where he was ready and willing to work as hard as he needed to to get back on the field as soon as possible by the time Juliana had met him.

She came to a stop next to the bike, where he had already started pedaling, adjusting the incline with a side eye glance at the man.

“You know you’re supposed to be doing it on 5 and not 4.”

Sergio grinned, “And you know that I like to keep you on your toes.”

Juliana narrowed her eyes at the man, shaking her head.

Sergio adjusted himself on the seat of the bike, repositioning himself to get the right leverage for his legs on the pedals. “Speaking of toes, who’s the new girl?”

“What do you mean, who’s the new girl? Her face is hanging all over this building! And did you not notice Leon Carvajal’s presence as soon as you limped in today?”

The athlete whipped his head around, clearly unaware that the most powerful man in Mexico and the man who signed his paychecks was in the room. Sr. Carvajal was on the other side of the gym, watching Bella bounce on the small trampoline that they used for some of their balance exercises. He turned back to Juliana.

“Oye, is that Valentina? I knew the back of that head looked familiar.”

Juliana furrowed her brow, giving him a strange glance. “That might be the weirdest thing you’ve ever said. What kind of creepy stuff are you into?”

Sergio laughed, shaking his head. “Don’t make it weird Juls, she’s been dating a friend of mine for a while now but I’ve never had time to meet her between our crazy training schedule and our crazy game schedule. Do you think I should introduce myself?”

Of course a girl as beautiful as Valentina Carvajal had a boyfriend that ran in the same circles as professional athletes. Juls liked Sergio well enough, having built up a friendship with the man at a point in his life when he needed a strong support system. But, Juliana also knew what kind of guys Sergio was known for hanging around, and she’d seen his face splattered across some of the tabloids in the months before he injured his knee. Maybe Sergio wasn’t a bad guy, but it definitely seemed like the youngest Carvajal deserved better than a party boy.

Juliana reached over the bike, changing the resistance level now that Sergio had passed the five minute warm-up level. 

“It’s probably a little too late for that today,” she said, gesturing to the commotion making its way to the staff exit. Valentina was crutching her way slowly across the gym, while Leon trails behind her, Isabella’s bag in one hand and the toddler in the other. Bella has one arm wrapped around her grandpa’s neck, while the other is waving in Juliana’s direction.

“Bye Juli!” The toddler’s squeaky voice rises above the sounds of gym equipment and the low hum of the music playing throughout the complex.

Juliana waves back to the girl, a wide smile on her face at the sight of her little helper’s joy. Her grin falters when she notices Valentina’s glare directed her way. Was that jealousy? Or was Valentina Carvajal just a snobby bitch?

Day 2

Two days later, Juliana was already working with another patient when Valentina hopped into the gym. This time she was alone, no father in sight, though Juliana was certain he must have dropped his daughter off because it was doubtful that the injured girl could drive herself around in her condition.

She watched as the girl worked her way over to where her brother-in-law was sitting behind his desk. There was no doubt that the air in the room changed when Valentina Carvajal entered. It wasn’t even the fact that she was essentially the boss of everybody. It was more in the way that she carried herself, even when she was walking with crutches.

Confidence radiated from the taller girl’s being, and her face was the most casual picture of graceful indifference, as though your opinion literally couldn’t matter less to her. There was something magnetic about the girl, and even though she’d been an absolute ice queen to Juliana when they met a couple days ago, there was a deep seated need within her that desperately wanted Valentina’s approval.

She was also insanely attractive and Juliana was only human.

She directed Alex, the patient she was with, to his next station before turning her attention to where Mateo had settled down with his sister. The injured girl was maneuvering her leg up on the exam bed.

Even from across the room Juliana could tell the girl was in pain. 

Mateo caught her eye across the room and nodded for her to come over. It was time for them to switch places anyways. Juliana’s job as a PT intern was to get patients through their exercise circuit and then on of the actual PTs would come over and do the massaging and adjusting.

She left Alex on the treadmill before making her way over to where the pair sat.

“Good morning Valentina.” 

Valentina gave returned the sentiment without making eye contact. Juliana internally rolled her eyes again. Did her mere presence annoy the girl?

Mateo handed Juliana his clipboard, with a list of the exercise plan that he’d laid out for the next couple of weeks while Valentina was still non-weight-bearing. The focus right now would be to make sure the instrumentation in her leg gave the bones time to heal. It would be at least 3 weeks before the girl would be allowed to even try putting pressure on her leg and she knew from experience that it would take even longer for the girl to gain enough confidence in her body again to start walking without the use of any crutches.

Mateo put a hand on Juliana’s shoulder and nodded, indicating that the patient was in her hands now. Great. She circled around the side of the bed so that Valentina would be forced to look at her. She pulled up one of the small rolling stools so that she could sit level with her.

“Can you take your boot off so we can get started?”

The taller girl, still avoiding eye contact, silently reached down and began undoing the straps and buckles around her medical boot. “Get ready for the grossest thing you’ve ever seen in your life,” she mumbled the words, clearly self conscious about her injury.

Juliana chuckled. “You’d be surprised at the level of disgusting things I’ve seen. You haven’t truly been scarred for life until you hear the sound a knee makes when it gives out. Or until you’ve seen a human bone sticking out of the skin.” Juliana shuddered, thinking about the time one of the team’s defenders landed incorrectly during practice and snapped their forearm in a horrifying way.

The injured girl didn’t seem to be as affected by the visual as Juliana was. “Well regardless, my stupid leg has three stupid scars and they all look horrible. And I’m pretty sure my calf muscle is already atrophying from being stuck in that boot like 24/7.” Valentina carefully lifted her leg out from the boot’s walls, leaning back on her forearms so that Juliana could move the back of the boot and place it to the side.

To be honest, the girl’s leg did look aggressively dramatic. There was still light bruising around her ankle and foot, and she did have three, freshly pink scars covering her otherwise perfect leg. Juliana made a mental note of what a model’s legs looked like, unable to stifle down the swoop in her stomach as she gently moved the girl’s leg around to examine each of the scars.

Valentina had a long scar down the outer side of her leg, spanning from about halfway down her calf to right above her ankle. From looking at the girl’s X-ray scans earlier, she knew that Valentina had a 3 inch plate screwed into her bone right there. She scooted over a bit, to get a better look at the inside of her leg. There, Valentina had a slightly smaller scar, from the top of her ankle bone to just underneath it. Below it, Juliana knew there were a few screws connected to tension wires that were attached to the screws on the other side. The last scar was the smallest, no more than a couple centimeters in length, right at the front of the girl’s ankle. Valentina had really done a number on herself with her injury, and had broken a small piece the leg bone that fits into the ankle socket when she dislocated her ankle. There was a screw right beneath the surface that put that piece back where it belonged.

Juliana sat back and raised her gaze to speak to Valentina. So used to the girl’s ambivalence to her presence, she was taken aback to notice the taller girl studying her quietly. She swallowed, and cleared her throat before speaking.

“You really went all out with this one, didn’t you?”

She must have surprised Valentina with her question because the girl’s eyebrows raised and she let out a puff of air, almost an actual laugh. Maybe this wouldn’t be the most dreaded patient of her week after all.

Recovering from her expression of positive emotion, Valentina huffed as Juliana rose from her stool.

“Yeah well it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting when my brother asked me to hit balls with him that day.”

Juliana smirked at the girl’s unintended innuendo, watching her cheeks turn rosy as she realized what she said. “Yeah I tend to stay away from hitting balls so I wouldn’t know.”

At 21 years old, Juliana had become quite comfortable with her sexuality. She had come out as bisexual to her mother when she was 17, and had been in a handful of relationships with both men and women in the years since. She had tended towards women more in the past year or so, but she was also not afraid to admit how attracted to Jon Snow she was every time she watched Game of Thrones. Obviously Sansa Stark and Daenerys Targaryen got her blood pumping, but she was very much an equal opportunity kind of girl.

Realizing that she probably shouldn’t have made a comment to who was essentially her boss, Juliana winced and muttered a quick “sorry” to the seated before continuing on and moving to gather the first of the supplies that she would need for treatment. She came back and squatted in front of the exam bed, dumping a small tub of marbles onto the floor in front of the girl’s injured foot, leaving the now empty Tupperware in front of her good leg. She gestured for Valentina to scoot over, before pulling off her own shoe and sock. The taller girl furrowed her brow and gave her a weary look.

“This is going to seem kind of dumb, but all of the muscles in the top of your foot need to remember how to contract and expand and how to control your toes.” She started picking up the marbles with her toes, one by one, depositing them in empty tub. “No rush, just take however long you need to.” She got up, switching to sit on the stool that she’d pushed to the side earlier.

“You expect me to put my bare feet on the same dirty marbles you were just toeing at?” Valentina scoffed, a look of mild disgust at the thought of the germs on the ground.

Juliana, having just retied her shoelace, let out a sigh and pushed her hair out of her face. “If you’re really that grossed out, I can get you new marbles. But let’s be real, your foot is probably way grosser than mine is.”

Valentina bit her lower lip, not having the energy to really go back and forth with the PT intern on this one. She knew she didn’t really have an issue about the marbles, she was just anxious about moving her ankle around and was trying to stall treatment. Deciding to just get on with the task at hand, she pushed herself closer to the edge of the bed and gripped the side to keep her grounded.

It had been about a month since her surgery. For the first two weeks after the operation, she’d been in a soft cast that held her ankle in place. It took her about 6 days for that to get old, and for the remaining week, her discomfort was the only thing she could think of. Every morning when she woke up, she stretched out her muscles. It wasn’t until she had one leg constricted that she realized she even did that in her morning routine. There was nothing more frustrating that wanting to stretch out, but being completely unable to.

She was also pretty sure that the surgeon had wrapped her leg at a funky angle, with her foot slightly turned in, rather than straight out. Her father had noticed it as well, and had made a comment to Eva when he thought she was out of earshot that he hoped her foot wasn’t permanently stuck in that position. That just added more anxiety on to her situation.

When the doctor’s appointment finally came to take off that stupid cast, Valentina couldn’t have been more excited. She was so relieved that she would finally have some freedom to the claustrophobic feeling surrounding her lower leg that she forgot that she had a tendency to get light headed at the sight of blood. Turns out she had an aversion to the sight of dried blood and stitches too. All it took was one look at her shriveled, dirty, mangled leg to make her vision blur and her ears to ring. Next thing she knew, a nurse was handing her a small bottle of gatorade and cracking a smelling salt under her nose to ground her.

The trade off was that now she was stuck wearing a hard-top boot that was heavier to lift but she could feel the joyous stretch in her bones when she woke up in the morning. It hurt like hell, but that was a work in progress. 

She considered this tradeoff as she ran her toes over the cold white marbles laid underneath her foot. The tendons that ran across the top her ankle and down the top of her foot were stiff and unused. She forced herself to wiggle her toes, and then tried her hardest to scrunch them together, attempting to pick up one of the marbles that was sitting in the gap between her big and second toes. The pain that shot down her shin and foot was more intense than she was anticipating, and her stupid toes wouldn’t grip onto the round object. She could hardly even scrunch her toes normally.

Valentina furrowed her brow and sucked in one of her cheeks in concentration. Her knuckles turned white as she held the edge of the exam bed in a death grip, still trying to grab one of the marbles as they slipped in between her toes. She let out a frustrated sigh, before pushing the hair that had fallen in her face behind her ear. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, a trick that she had learned on how to deal with feelings of frustration.

When she looked up again, she was surprised to see Juliana giving her a timid smile of encouragement. Not wanting to appear completely useless to the girl who was her employee on some level, Valentina bit her lower lip and stared down at the marbles, willing her injured foot to scrunch up the toes to wrap around one of the small marbles. It took a couple more tries, but she was finally able to get it squashed between the big toe and the second one. She lifted it up and dropped it in the Tupperware. 

“Hey.” Valentina lifted her eyes to look at the girl sitting on the stool across from her position on the exam bed. “It’s okay if it’s rough at first. The whole point of this is so that your body can remember what it feels like when it goes back to normal. Don’t stress about it.”

Valentina broke eye contact, looking back down at the white marbles, mocking her from the floor. She was frustrated and disappointed at the state of her body, and quite frankly embarrassed that such a simple task was so exhausting and had taken her so long.

Juliana continued, “And to be honest, I thought that would take you longer. Some of the players that come in here with messed up legs take almost 7 minutes to pick one up, and it only took you about 4.”

The injured girl rolled her eyes. “I bet you get a kick out of watching people struggle to do such a simple task.”

Juliana let out a hum, contemplating her patient’s words before leveling her gaze right at Valentina. “Well first of all, if a physical therapist is finding joy in somebody else’s pain, I would have to recommend that they be fired because there’s something sick about that. And two, I don’t let you suffer. I let you figure out what you body is capable of, so that you can start trusting it again.” 

She leaned down to gather some of the marbles that had rolled out of range for Valentina. “I think that you’ll find that’s what a lot of physical therapy is about. Trusting that Mateo and I can help you get back to normal, and trusting your leg to keep you steady after the traumatic experience you’ve already gone through.”

Feeling slightly berated, Valentina turned her attention back to the cool glass underneath toes. One down, about a dozen more to go. Fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've found that I write slow so I bumped this up to 5 chapters so I can update more often rather than wait to crank out long chapters!
> 
> As always, you can find me on tumblr @mchaha

**Author's Note:**

> Posting this in parts so I'm actually motivated to finish something for once
> 
> Title from Maggie Rogers' "I Heard it in a Past Life"
> 
> You can find me on tumblr


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